Southern Crime Fiction

In the fight against the French, a treaty with the Sultan of Pulo Prabang, a piratical Malay state, may prove decisive. Captain Jack Aubrey and ship’s surgeon Stephen Maturin, along with a hand-picked crew, must survive the dangers of the high forties and convey a diplomatic envoy to ensure this key alliance, but dangers, both natural and man-made, will dog their every move.

Swift Justice tells the story of Leon Brooks, an educated black man, who comes under the wrath of the Texas KKK for initiating a voting drive. The Klan, which is led by the Imperial Wizard Atwood Baker, who is called "Judge" because he is the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, cannot allow the voting drive to happen. His solution - lynch Leon Brooks and set an example.

A young man wakes up at dawn to drive to the Andes, to climb the Cerro Bonete - a mountain untouched by ice axes and climbers, one of the planet's final mountains to be conquered - as an act of heroic bravado - or foolishness. But instead he finds himself dragged by the undertow of memory to Esplanada, the neighborhood he grew up in, to the brotherhood of his old friends, and to the clearing in the woods where he witnessed an act that has run like a scar through the rest of his life.

Cantankerous Cat Touchette and his friend and employee, Tee Man, stumble upon Cat’s murdered neighbor, Ovey LaCourier. Cat later learns that the old man’s son, Ari, is in town and meets with him. Ari, an Army sniper, is near retirement eligibility, and in the process of investigating his father’s murder with Cat, his involvement with a childhood friend’s sister, and a general affinity for his new friends, gives retirement serious consideration. Meanwhile, once again, Cat cannot keep himself from landing in the middle of someone’s problem.

Mandy Rose Bokum wanted to go home. Her mind and body were getting sicker. Three lonely years living in one room in California were enough. She yearned for peace. She craved love. She wanted answers. Why was her child stolen? Did the thief know her? Was it somehow her fault? The townies blamed her. Accused her of murder. It was time to tell Clyde Boudreaux that he was Hannah's daddy. Clyde fought his own demons. He was seven when he'd watched his granddaddy get lynched. Mandy struggled for years with her own dark secrets. Maybe two halves could make a whole.

After driving through a violent storm, young married couple Riley and Jake Marshall wind up stranded with a flat tire off the I-95 near Yemassee, South Carolina. They thought this would be the worst part of their day. They were wrong. When the tow truck arrives ahead of schedule, Riley and Jake think their luck may have changed. Wrong again. Jakes’s expensive car is loaded onto the flatbed, and the unsuspecting couple climb aboard. What begins as a car theft and mugging turns much darker when the backwoods car thieves discover Jake’s family is worth millions.

Mick Hardin, a combat veteran now working as an army CID agent, is home on a leave that is almost done. His wife is about to give birth, but they aren't getting along. His sister, newly risen to sheriff, has just landed her first murder case, and local politicians are pushing for city police or the FBI to take the case. Are they convinced she can't handle it, or is there something else at work? She calls on Mick who, with his homicide investigation experience and familiarity with the terrain, is well-suited to staying under the radar.

Lee Mitchell is a young barrister from a working-class Caribbean background: in the cut-throat environment of the courtroom, everything is stacked against her. On her doorstep in South London the 15-year-old son of the pastor at the local Black church is shot, and the local community is shattered. All evidence is pointing to infamously corrupt, racist police officer Sergeant Jack Lambert as the irredeemable suspect. His own boss—rebel-turned-copper Danny Wallace—is certain he is guilty.

Does good overcome evil . . . . . . Or not? Louisiana bayou teen Angelina Delacroix has feelings she's never had before. She yearns for what she knows is wrong. She’s envious of others and anger fuels her soul. Angelina is haunted by sexual desire while other longings frighten her. She wants for things she knows nothing about, and she knows these longings come from another world. Her family is a mess. Her mother is ill, her father unemployed, and her little brother has a deadly leg wound. Bored, depressed, and unimpressed with life in general, Angelina plays on the dark side where she ...

Times are tough as Elliott and Gloria discuss the possibility of taking in a boarder to help make ends meet. Meanwhile Elliott and matt are hot on the case of the missing brother, having been hired by his older sister to find him. Also running through the story is a side bet between Elliott and Matt as to who can drum up the first client of the day. The loser of this contest is surely going to be embarrassed.